A blog by Fr. Daniel C. Gill

Acknowledging my state within the Church and the limits of my knowledge and competencies as a student of canon law, I submit all my thoughts with due and proper deference to the scrutiny of those more learned and experienced than I.

This blog represents my views alone and does not reflect those of any individuals or institutions with whom I might be associated.

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Monthly Archives for November 2014

Following up on my previous post, what about priests who are obliged to celebrate both forms of the Mass on both days?

Canon 905 establishes that priests may celebrate only one Mass per day. Two exceptions are envisioned. Written into section 1 is the exception “in cases where the law permits him to celebrate or concelebrate more than once on the same day.” The law, in this case, would be GIRM, 3rd ed., no. 205 which includes Christmas Day (c) and All Souls Day (d), and which incorporates the rules regarding intentions and stipends for All Souls Day established by Incruentum altaris sacrificum. The other exception is found in section 2, which allows a local ordinary for a just cause to allow bination on all days and, if pastoral necessity requires, it trination on Sundays and holy days of obligation. The intention and stipends stemming from this exception are governed by can. 951.

A priest who is obliged to celebrate both forms of the Mass on the same day presumably has the faculty to binate and trinate per can. 905, §2. No priest is required to take advantage of the All Souls Day exception to can. 905, but if he does, he must follow the rules laid down by Incruentum altaris sacrificum. This is all the more true on All Souls Days that fall on Sunday when the priest already has the faculty to trinate on Sunday. A priest with this faculty may elect to trinate in virtue of the exception found in section 2 or in virtue of the exception found in section 1. If he chooses the latter, he must be free to apply one Mass to all the faithful departed and one for the Pope’s intentions. But if he is obliged to offer two Masses for specific intentions (which due to circumstances he cannot transfer to another day), it seems then that he cannot take advantage of the All Souls Day exception—although this has no practical effect on him because he may still offer a third Mass in virtue of the grant by his local ordinary for whatever intention he wish.

The same principles apply to Monday, November 3, All Souls Day (EF), if a priest is obliged to celebrate the OF of the Mass. Even if he was not free to apply his OF Mass for his own intentions, this does not disrupt the norms of Incruentum altaris sacrificum, which allowed for one stipend Mass for any intention. This priest would be free to say two more Masses that day, but only in the EF because only in the EF form is Monday All Souls Day. If a priest, however, is obliged to celebrate two Masses (OF) for specific donor intentions, it would seem correct that he be able to celebrate a third Mass that day. This is because his two OF Masses were in virtue of the sec. 2 exception to canon 905 and his third Mass would be in virtue of the sec. 1 exception, again, as long as he celebrates it in the EF. This third Mass would, of course, be without stipend and for either the Pope’s intentions or—perhaps more fittingly—for all the faithful departed.

Oh the complications that stem from having two out-of-synch calendars…